It is a little difficult to know what's happening with the United States, in so far as the long-term unemployment rate is concerned. There is no real way of knowing how the US economy will recover. As Paul already mentioned, this is the biggest gap between the Canadian and US unemployment rates since 1975. The Canadian economy is better positioned, structurally speaking, than the US economy. Therefore, it's possible this gap will not close. Will the gap remain the same as it is today? Probably not, but the Canadian economy is faring well.
On December 8th, 2009. See this statement in context.